


Symbiont

by MorbidOptimist



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, F/F, Gen, IN SPACE!, Mothergrubs, Outer Space, matriorb
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2018-12-12 13:21:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11737905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorbidOptimist/pseuds/MorbidOptimist
Summary: The vast expanse of space is crawling with all sorts of strange, unseemly creatures; Kanaya Maryam, along with the rest of her crew find themselves fortunate enough to be taken in by beings they only roughly comprehend after suffering an unfortunate accident that leaves their mission in jeopardy. Kanaya wonders if the odd beings will help, if their flattering violet-eyed crewman is anything to judge by.





	1. Chapter 1

Kanaya groaned and spent a few seconds arguing with herself whether or not attempting to roll over and sit up would be worth angering the splitting headache threatening to obliterate her think pan. 

She debated this quietly for a few moments before another groan broke the silence; this one not her own, and felt a small surge of relief at the familiar voice of her dancestor. That meant at least two of their crew were alive, at least, and their mission might not have been doomed to failure.

Well, she would still have to get up and see the extent of the damage to be certain,she thought; but she allowed herself, for a moment, to remain in an unknowing limbo of hopeful conjecture.

It was then that the choice of movement was taken from her, as she felt herself being rolled over; she moaned unhappily, and nearly flashed her fangs at the displeasure, but when she saw who, or exactly, what, had jostled her, Kanaya was immediately glad that she had refrained.

For when she opened her eyes, it wasn’t the sight of her name-mate that held her; it wasn’t even a member of the vessel crew.

The being holding her wasn’t even wearing a suit even remotely trollian in design. They didn’t even have any horns.

The reality of the situation dawned on her and her eyes widened in horror.

 

She was in the arms of a human.

 

Kanaya’s blood pusher quickened its pace, and then her vision faded to black.


	2. Chapter 2

Once again Kanaya’s thinkpan ached, and the pain lingered in the nerves inside her horns prompting her to shake them instinctively; she opened her eyes and was blinded momentarily by lights so bright that their glow lingered underneath her eyelids when she snapped them shut again.

The second time she opened her eyes, she kept them open long enough for them to adjust and sighed.

A dull ache consumed her abdomen and she couldn’t help but hiss at the annoyance. 

Her hiss didn’t come out quite right; it along with the rest of her seemed too fuzzy, too blurred around the edges to be as it should.

She became aware of a hand gently touching her arm; it was such a light touch it almost hadn’t registered.

She turned her head to see what she could only describe as an alien.

Dimly, she knew it was human; she’d seen pictures and videos of them passed around on the intranet and they were planets and systems that she knew the humans frequented, but this was the first time she’d ever seen one so close. 

The one in front of her was pale, nearly as pale as a lusus, which was a strange mixture of unsettling and reassuring. Their fur was also pale, and was cut to frame their face. They also wore a headband, black and gloss covered; humans she knew, were fond of silly things like style and fashion, and wondered if the adornment held any cultural significance. Their lips were also black and glossy, and Kanaya watched them curve into the tiniest of smiles; Kanaya shivered, the human had no fangs, no horns, and their claws were small, black, and blunt. The alien’s eyes were a beautiful shade of violet that placed her neither as an indigo or a seadweller, but something different all together that conjured pictures of chucklevoodoos and betentacled sea-creatures just the same. 

The human noticed her staring and Kanaya could practically feel the alien’s focus shift to her.

“Ah, you’ve awakened,” the alien said, “wonderful.”

Their speech was strange; it lacked an undergrowl and sported no clicks or whistles, yet the human mimicked the words and grammar of her people's language perfectly. It was as if their quirk was to have no quirk at all, other than to retain formal grammatical sentence construction.

“I would not recommend moving very much, you’ve taken quite a beating as it were.” 

The alien smiled again, slightly; one corner of their mouth turned and stretched over their face with the other remained stationary and unchanged. Tiny muscles and skin that moved over bone as it pleased. The flexibility of their species was jarring.  

“If you can sit up however, I shan’t attempt to stop you.”

Kanaya considered this for a moment, and braced herself internally; she did not want to appear any weaker than she likely already looked, and something told her she would not be fond of the pain sitting up would bring, but she had little choice.

She sat up and her vision swam.

The alien’s hands steadied her, and held her in place while she recovered her balance. The alien smiled again, and pushed something soft and giving behind her back. 

Kanaya tore her gaze away from the alien itself and glanced around behind the being.

It almost appeared as if she were in a respiteblock. 

She glanced at the alien again, and then back at the room, and then at what she was sitting on.

She blushed.

She was indeed, in a human respite block, lying on a human slumber pad, propped up by human pillowcushions. 

She squeaked.

“I apologize for the unconventional quarters, but the medbay was full and when your sister deemed you would remain among the living, I offered my quarters for your use.”

“Sister?” Kanaya let the question slip out as she fumbled for her knowledge in human vernacular; humans were mammalian if she recalled correctly, and they were quite adamant about giving names to their bloodline members; “You mean Porrim? My dancestor? She is all right?”

The human nodded gently, and their smile slid into something smaller, softer.

“Where is she?”

The human tilted their head and made the half smile again, which seeme to indicate amusement, and then jerked forward in her direction.

Kanaya‘s ear flicked involuntarily, and then slowly, she convinced herself to turn her head.

Porrim was laying beside her, sound asleep, her breathing even, and Kanaya felt equal parts embarrassment and relief fill her bloodpusher.

She turned back to the human.

“Thank you,” she offered. 

The human closed their eyes and bowed,  _ formally _ bowed, and lifted their head.

“Anytime, Miss Maryam.”

Kanaya feared her bloodpushed would give out from how fast it as beating, and the human made a series of low cuffed noises; chuckling, perhaps? It was hard to tell.

“I’m afraid you have me at a disadvantage,” Kanaya admitted.   

“Forgive me,” the human replied, as they straightened their posture, “My name is Rose Lalonde, I am the Executive Officer of the good ship Frigglish -on which you are currently boarded- which is under the command of my sister, Roxanne Lalonde, Commanding Officer and Prime Feline Appraiser as I’m sure she’ll inevitably boast. I’m sure you’ll run across her at some point, if she doesn’t stop by to introduce herself. She’s a bit busy sorting things out at the moment, which is why I offered my services of assistance. I daresay that while I lack my sister’s jovial nature, I do hope my abilities as a hostess have been satisfactory thus far.”   

“As I have yet to be surrounded by a firing squad, or eaten alive, I would say that things are going rather well.”

Kanay immediately flung her hand to her mouth, which pulled painfully on her abdomen; “oh, do forgive me, I didn’t mean-”

She was cut off by the human  _ giggling _ of all things, and Kanaya was reminded of the fact that humans were known to flip between seriousness and frivolity on a whim.

“My good lady,” the human replied when they regained their composure, “I assure you, that if I were to eat you, I would would wait until you were in better shape for it.”

Kanaya blushed, unsure whether she should take the remark as a jest or a threat. 

“How bad was I?”

The human tilted their head and seriousness fell thick over the air.

“You had a hole in you the size of a bracer beam. Mostly because you were run through with a bracer beam, straight through your abdomen. You were bleeding out pretty fast when I found you. I sealed the wound with medigel and carried you out of your ship and to our medbay; poor Jane had her hands full today I’m afraid, she’s our doctor by the way, but she did a good job patching everyone up. You should be under the influence of the pain killers right now, so if you feel a bit dizzy, that along with the blood loss is why.”

“And Porrim?”

“Suffered a head wound, some minor fractures, plenty of bruises; Jane stitched her up, and she was one of the first to wake up. She pitched in her lot and with her help we were able to save most of your crew.”

“Any casualties?”

“One I’m afraid,” the human replied regretfully, “Megido, I believe your pilot said.”

“Aradia,” kanaya whispered sadly; “what of the others?”

“One is missing his lower torso, the bullhorned boy, Nitram; my cousin shall be building him a new set of legs if he makes it through the night. A cerulean blooded girl lost an eye and an arm but since she’s been about as feisty as a hurricane, I feel confident that she’ll be just fine. Her teal blood friend there though, she lost both eyes; a blue blood named Zahhak lost half a horn but is otherwise unharmed. And there was a nubby-horned boy who refused treatment until he stopped shouting long enough to realize that humans all sport a similar blood color to his own.” 

“Karkat,” Kanaya muttered under her breath; she nodded, “I am pleased to hear that everyone is mostly unharmed.”

“I am pleased that I could bring you good news,” the human replied.

“And what of the Mothergrub, were you able to relocate her without fuss or did you have to resort to tranquilizers? She can be a bit of a handful, even at the best of times.”

The human’s face changed again, slid into something like sadness, and they swayed their head slowly.

“I regretfully inform you that when we found her, she had already passed on. There was nothing we could do.”

“I, I see,” Kanaya managed to reply. She swallowed the news dryly, and made another click. 

“Was her Matriorb recovered at least?”

The human tilted their head, and this time their face contorted into confusion.

“I beg your pardon but I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“The Matriorb, it’s like...” Kanaya paused and tried to think of something that could pass for a human equivalent and huffed, “It’s like a seed, inside the Mothergrub, that if you remove and take care of, sprouts into a new Mothergrub. We need it if we are to in anyway complete our mission.”

The human made a wide sound, one of understanding, and Kanaya tried to keep from fidgeting.

“We did not remove the Matriorb no, but seems how we have not yet left orbit, it would be simple enough to send a shuttle to fetch it for you.”

The human smiled reassuringly and Kanaya felt herself nod; she was growing tired.

“Would it be permissable of me to end our conversation prematurely,” she asked the human, “I’m afraid I am rather inclined to the idea of joining my name-mate in catching some metaphorical woolbeasts.”

“My dear lady,” the human replied, “You may do as you like.”

The human stood up; “If you’ve no further need of me currently, I shall then take my leave of you,” the human again, bowed respectfully, and then walked to the exit hatch and stopped.

“Please make yourself at home, if there’s anything you need, let me know.”

Kanaya nodded, too tired to speak or to be taken aback, and caught the tail end of another smile before she fell against the human’s sleeppad and pillowcushions, and drifted into a deep sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Hunger gnawed her awake, and it consumed her with such a ferocity that she sat up the instant she regained consciousness. 

She ran her tongue against her teeth and felt a shake along her spine that ended strangely somewhere around her middle. 

“Kanaya.”

She turned at the sound and was faced with her name-mate.

Instinct kicked in.

She propelled herself forward, and  _ bit _ . 

Immediately arms encircled her, but they cradled her closer instead of tearing her away, and Kanaya drank greedily until the hunger coursing inside of her had been quenched enough that she regained some semblance of higher thought. She pulled back to breathe and became aware of herself again, and of her name-mate’s humming. 

She tried to speak, to apologize for attacking her, but Porrim shushed her, and gently pulled her head back down and settled her lips against the wound. 

Kanaya resisted until the scent filled her nostrils and then lapped at the jade trails obediently until her skin was clean, then she turned her attention back to the bite, and suckled from the wound until she felt herself grow limp from Porrim’s pale ministrations. 

She shuddered.

“Are you well, little moth?”

Kanaya managed a whining keen, and Porrim chuckled; she trailed her claws gently against her scalp and purred.

She littered tiny kisses against her hair and Kanaya turned her head to place a kiss against Porrim’s neck; it was terribly intimate, but she felt the situation was appropriate for such pornographic displays of affection.

If one could not find reassurance in their morial after barely surviving a gruesome attack and subsequent shipwreck, and brought aboard an alien spacecraft, then when could they?

Porrim seemed to share her sentiment, as she was still cradling her as close a lusus coddled their wiggler the first night they crawled out of the caverns.

Kanaya nuzzled into her name-mate and sighed; they sat for a little while, curled up against each other, having a silent feelings jam. 

Eventually, the wound in her abdomen became too much to ignore and Kanaya laid down again, and settled her face in Porrim’s lap.

Porrim ran her claws through her hair, and Kanaya couldn’t help but answer her morial's comforting trill with her own.

They traded trills and thrums for a little while longer, relishing in the of being alive and with each other. 

Their moment of intimacy was interrupted however, by the exit hatch opening with a quiet hiss. 

Porrim startled a bit, and wrapped an arm protectively over Kanaya as she struggled to sit up. 

Porrim’s ears flayed back, and Kanaya felt herself tense, until the figure cleared the steam and revealed themself to be the violet eyed human from before.

Upon seeing them, the human startled a bit and cleared their throat. 

“My apologies, I can return later if it would be more convenient.”

“It’s alright, thank you,” Porrim replied, surprising Kanaya; “we were just finished.”

Porrim wrapped both her arms around Kanaya’s chest, and rested her chin on her shoulder; an obvious display of claim, but since she bared no fangs nor growled any warning, Kanaya let herself relax.

“I stopped by to inform you both that most of your former shipmates are up and about, and have taken temporary lodgings in the cargo hold; and while you both are certainly free to hole up in here for as long as you like, your friends are getting rather antsy about your whereabouts. They seem to think we’ve sequestered you away for nefarious purposes and there is only so long I can be accused of contemplating nefarious purposes before I become unable to resist the urge to contemplate nefarious purposes; I am, by nature i’m afraid, a creature composed entirely out of spite.”

“They can’t really be upset, can they,” Kanaya wondered aloud, “How long have we been in here?”

“A few days. I’ve changed your bandages twice while you were unconscious; your body seems to be holding up well without a spine by the way, quite impressive, and the tissue seems insistent on closing the wound on its own, which is equally good news. It appears that you’ll soon be good as new, more or less.”  

“It will likely be another few days before she is ready to walk around,” Porrim replied cautiously.

“And you are both more than welcome to rest here as long as you need to,” the human replied, nodding slightly.

Porrim made a small noise of thanks.

“Is that all you came to say,” Kanaya inquired. 

“No, there is one other thing,” the human responded as the lopsided smile overtook her face, “I’ve also come to inform you that the shuttle mission was a success. We’ve salvaged the cadaver of your Mothergrub, and as much of the supplies and belongings we could manage to pry from the wreckage. Everything is being stored in the cargo hold, as per your crewmates request. You are welcome to pursue it at your leisure.”

A trill got caught in Porrim’s throat and Kanaya felt herself smile.

“That is wonderful news, thank you Commander.”

“Please, call me Rose or Lalonde if you would,” the human replied, “Monikers of rank are much too formal between friends.”

“Are we friends Miss Lalonde?” Porrim asked, amused; Kanaya wondered how she knew the human’s gender assignment, and then momentarily wondered if gender was even a comparable concept between their species. 

“With the dearest respect my lady,” Rose replied, “If we are not friends, then we certainly are a very strange set of enemies.” 

Porrim chuckled and Kanaya allowed herself another moment to study to the alien.

“Now,” Rose stated, “I believe I shall inquire if either you are in need of anything?” 

“An absolutiontrap?” Porrim asked.

“Ah yes, you shall find a shower and toiletries through that door there,” Rose replied as she nodded to a door opposite of the room’s exit hatch, “You shall find the mess hall if you follow any corridor or grumbling human long enough; the medbay is one level below, the captain’s deck on level above, and your friends of course, are in the cargo hold forming their own union. I believe they’ve dubbed the area Crate Town, and the password for entry changes hourly; if you take the elevator you’ll save yourselves a lot of walking, but it is maddeningly slow, so it is a rather hefty choice to make.” 

“Thank you, Rose,” Kanaya replied, trying the name out on her tongue; it lacked a proper number of syllables, and it sounded like a keen coming from her own mouth, but it seemed to suit the human, and if her pronunciation of it irked Rose in any way, the human made no mention of it. 

“And now I’m afraid it is almost time for my shift, so I do hope you’ll excuse me if I procure myself a fresh uniform before seeing myself out? My sister is getting rather tired of lending me hers.”

“By all means,” Porrim replied, “It is your room after all.”

The Rose human sauntered over to a locker in the corner of the room. She pulled out a few items and Kanaya respectfully turned her head when the human began shrugging off her clothes to slide the new ones on; she could feel Porrim’s surprise through the hitch in her breath and she didn’t blame her. It was amazingly trusting, to allow oneself to be so vulnerable in front of strangers. Well, as vulnerable as humans could be, she supposed. 

In a way, it almost soothed the embarrassment of having been so weak under the human’s care; she wondered briefly if it would be impolite to thank the human for evening the score between them when the human turned around, dressed in a uniform that was obviously tailored far more personally to her than the previous uniform had been.

She nodded once more, and whisked herself through the exit hatch without another word. 

“Pretty little thing, for an alien,” Porrim mused. 

Kanaya tsked, unsurprised at her name-mate’s banter; she settled herself back down as Porrim helped herself to the human’s bathroom, and rolled over to get some more sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Kanaya regretted her decision to take the ‘elevator’ somewhere in the fifth minute it took on its madingley slow descent to the cargo-holding-block.

Still, the overly wide platform of vertical re-alienment was almost refreshing after traversing through the slim, narrow ‘hallways’ built in the human-oriented interstellar-craft.

The hiss of the hydraulic door opening into a surprisingly clamorous cargo-hold was an even greater breath of metaphorical fresh air.

It was easy to see where her crew-mates had overtaken the block; crates stacked and mapped out into a flimsy, if impressive segmented fortress.

“Password!” Terezi barked at the same time Nepeta chirruped, “Kanaya’s here!”

The continuous sounds of scuffles, lightly creaking crates, and Vriska growling idley were somewhat amusing; Kanaya almost allowed herself a grin, before thinking better of it.

She briefly wondered if her time in the human-den had rubbed off on her.  

“Door’s ‘round the other way,” Sollux offered from one of the ‘gander-pillars’.

Kanaya would have taken him for his word, had the boy not been wearing protective ocular coverings against both of his ganderbulbs.

“Down here;” Vriska insisted.

Kanaya bent down to see the cerulian girl wiggle a smaller crate out of the way, creating a makeshift entereence.

She crawled through, and Vriska quickly pushed the crate back into place behind her.

It was a little cramped; Kanaya found herself grateful that these were trolls she’d known since before their collective molts. She tried not to picture what sort of blood bath would have lieky ensued from having everyone in Crate Town at once had they not been their own swarm for serval sweeps.

“You’re alive!” Karkat yipped.

“What did they _do_ to you,” Vriska asked, wincing warily.

“Well we know what _Porrim_ did to her,” Terezi answered crudely, before chuckling.

Kanaya’s ear’s flattened at the jab; her thinkpan was still admittedly placation-flushed to let her process her embarrassment directly.

“Nearly dying is a perfectly viable reason to get one’s shoosh on,” she settled quickly.

“Purrfectly under-paws-able,” Nepeta agreed; she shot a particularly nauseating glance at Equius, which made the boy perspire a bit more than he had already been perspiring.

“Gross,” Feferi panned, grinning.

“Must be nice to have your moirail not be dead,” Sollux mused absently.

Kanaya’s pale-sacs momentarily pulsed for the boy’s loss, before it flickered off again.

“Enough about everyone’s dumb-diamonds,” Vriska announced, slamming a mechanical fist against a wooden slat.

She waited for the clamour of the swarm to quiet before addressing her in particular again.

“Tell us about the humans,” she demanded, “What was it like in there?”

“Well,” Kanaya began, thinking; “It was a little startling and a little strange I suppose,” she offered as she recalled the room and the violet-eyed human who owned it; “Miss Lalonde has been a very attentive hostess. And as I was for the most of it unconsciously indisposed, you all would likely know more about our situation than I.”

“I’ll say,” Eridan mutter grously.

At Kanaya’s questioning glance, Eridan’s fins flared slightly as the sea-dweller grew agitated with excitement.

“I’ll tell you w-what’s going on,” he said dramatically; “W-we’re all going to be culled for going aw-wahl is w-what’s going on.”

“Don’t be a silly-shark,” Feferi retorted cheerfully.

“He might be right Fef,” Sollux interjected somberly; “Even if you save us from the drones, we’re still trapped onboard a ship of these lunatic creatures.”

“Luna-tics?” Kanaya asked.

“-Don’t let their appearances fool you Kan,” Karkat instructed, “They evolved to look as unthreatening as possible; that’s how they get you. First it’s all pale-groping and passivatory interrogation, and then it’s all brutal, beastial violence with their blunted teeth and archaic weaponry.”

“They’ll fuck holes in our thinkpans and eat us bulge first,” Eridan insisted; “I w-watched it on the holo-tube.”

“No one’s gonna’ eat us,” Vriska snapped.

“That uh, sounds like you have a plan,” Tavros commented hesitantly; Kanaya took a moment to look over the boy’s newly crafted mechanical limbs and found herself vaguely impressed with their balance of sleek design and visibly sturdy craftsmanship.

“Here’s where we as I see it,” Vriska chirruped, “The humans are only gonna keep us alive as long as they want something from us, and we already know what it is they want.”

“What’s uh, that?” Tavros asked.

Vriska turned back to her, and smiled smugly; Kanaya tried to ignore the color draining from her face as her pores started to glow faintly.

“Keep that purple-human entertained Maryam,” Vriska ordered gravely; “Or it’s sun-blocking-fabrics for the lot of us.”  

Kanaya opened her windpipe to deny the accusation against the human, but stopped as the alien’s words whispered faintly in her thinksponge.

“...I suppose she did threaten to eat me,” she conceded; physically, Kanaya felt the reality of their situation melt away the warm, fuzzy metaphorical recuperacoon of papp-induced contentment from the past few hours.

“Think of it this way,” Vriska added, her words coated with ego-pleased charm, “You have your moirail with you to help you through it. So we’re not even throwing you to the ancestral-barkbeasts really.”  

“No,” Sollux corrected, “We’re literally throwing her into the den of alien-subjugglators and asking her to play fraud-square with them to save our sorry asses from ending up on the wrong end of feast-surface.”

“I’d k-elp,” Feferi announced, “but the humans have an heiress of their own.”

“Besides,” Vriska stated, “You’re the one they dragged to their respiteblock.”

Kanaya’s ears lowered as she accepted the emotional idea of the task.

“I’ll do it,” Kanaya keened evenly.

“Good,” Equius commented; “In the meantime I would suggest that the rest of us remain indifferent to the humans’ sickening conciliatory predetations.”

“Well?” Terezi hissed, “What’re you waiting for, 12th Perigee's Eve? Get to it, Auxiliatrice.”


End file.
